§ MR. SEARS (Cheltenham)I beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, 726 whether the Board of Inland Revenue have power under the Income Tax Act of 1842 to control the action of the local tax: commissioners in regard to assessments; will he say whether the Board have power under this Act, or any other, to dismiss an official (clerk, parochial assessor, or collector) appointed by the said commissioners; and whether the penalties provided by the Act of 1880 to meet obstruction, negligence, etc., by clerks, assessors, and collectors in England and Wales would have to be enforced by the local commissioners who appoint them.
§ THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. MCKENNA,) Monmouthshire, N.As regards the first Question, the Board of Inland Revenue, through their surveyors, have considerable powers as regards the initiation and correction of assessments. But they have no power to control the final decisions of local commissioners, except by reference to the courts and the obtaining of a judicial decision on matters in dispute. The Answer to the second Question is in the negative, and to the third, in the affirmative.